MSI will be the first to market with Intel's next-generation netbook platform, 'Pine Trail', Asian moles have claimed.

Will it incur the wrath of Intel? Pine Trail, which is set to ship as the Atom N450, has been roadmapped for a Q4 2009 release. However, in June it looked like the chip might debut sooner rather than later on in the quarter.

Skip forward a month and it was alleged that Pine Trail's release was being put back to Q1 2010, a claim the chip giant quickly rejected.

Most likely, we reckon, Intel will ship in Q4 - meeting its public schedule - but formally launch the part early in Q1 2010, possibly at the Consumer Electronics Show, which takes place in Las Vegas in January.

Netbook leaders Asus and Acer may choose to wait until the Intel marketing machine kicks in, but it seems MSI would rather ship first and ask questions later. It wants to be able to avoid selling on price, the moles, cited by DigiTimes, said.

So don't expect MSI's ahead-of-the-rest N450 machines to be cheap. Especially since it's claimed they will feature touchscreens and run Windows 7 rather than XP. ®